People

Principal Investigator

Cory Shain

Assistant Professor

I study human language processing and its relationship to brain function.

CV

James H. Clark Center, Room W100A , 318 Campus Drive , Stanford, CA 94305

Postdocs

Yuhan Zhang, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

My research aims to answer how meaning arises in the mind given the inherent complexity in language, cognitive constraints in the processor, and uncertainty in the environment. I leverage toolkits in linguistic theory, Bayesian probability, cognitive neuroscience, and machine learning to establish a coherent theory. I obtained a PhD degree in psycholinguistics from Harvard University with intensive training at MIT.

Miriam Hauptman, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

My research uses neural and behavioral measures to investigate the relationship between language and conceptual knowledge. I’m particularly interested in how we infer discourse-level information from language, and I aim to combine insights from different neuroimaging modalities (e.g., MEG, fMRI) to address this question. Prior to joining the CLiMB Lab, I completed my PhD in Psychological & Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

Andrea de Varda, PhD

Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher

I study language processing, and increasingly higher-level cognition more broadly, in humans and large language models. Some broad questions I am interested in are: what are the defining features of language—properties that hold across diverse languages, and between artificial and biological language systems? What makes some reasoning domains and problems hard? How is higher-level cognition organized in minds and models, and are there any privileged features that tend to emerge across systems? My work combines computational modeling with behavioral experiments and brain imaging.

Research Staff

Erxiao Wang

Research Coordinator

My research interest centered on speech and language processing in human brain and how to apply brain imaging techniques in the field of cogntive neuroscience. She hopes to explore both computational and implementation level of langauge processing in the future research.

Graduate Students

Josh Rozner

Graduate Student

My present research focuses on compositionality and productive generalization in language, including language acquisition.

Nathan Roll

Graduate Student

I'm a PhD student affiliated with the Department of Linguistics and the NLP Group at Stanford University. My research investigates the shared language processing mechanisms across computational and biological systems, with a focus on speech perception. I apply this work to challenges in healthcare, from modeling human language deficits using LLMs to identifying underreported cases of domestic violence in Stanford Healthcare patients.

Selena She

Rotating Graduate Student

I am interested in how humans and machines understand and communicate, both within their own systems and with one another. To study this, I use tools from neuroscience and artificial intelligence, including hyperscanning fMRI and neural network–based communicative agents. I am also interested in developing methods from natural language processing to identify and improve cognitive interpretability in complex systems.

Undergraduate Students

Weston Keller

Undergraduate Student

I am currently studying Linguistics, Neuroscience, and Computer Science through the Symbolic Systems B.S. program. My current research interests include action-oriented language and executive function during goal-oriented visuospatial tasks. I'm excited to gain experience with neural imaging techniques and machine learning tools. In the future, I'd like to explore auditory processing of linguistic and musical illusions, with a focus on plasticity and tonal exposure during early development. In my free time, I like to play violin, make short documentary films, and explore nature.

Stephanie Cho

Undergraduate Student

I’m currently researching differences in predictability effects between humans and large language models. My particular interests lie in language acquisition, natural language processing, and philosophy of language. As a Symbolic Systems major, I study the intersections of linguistics, computer science, philosophy, and psychology.

Advay Aravind

Undergraduate Student

I am currently an undergraduate at Stanford, interested in studying computer science and physics. In the realm of computer science, I aim to study the intersection of NLP-centric deep-learning with cognitive neuroscience and computational linguistics to explore how “concepts” structurally manifest within human and artificial neural structures; as such, I’m further interested in AI interpretability. I’m deeply grateful for opportunities to undertake novel research in this ubiquitous field.

Seiji Yang

Undergraduate Student

I am an undergraduate student double majoring in mathematics and art. I hope to apply methods in topology and combinatorial optimization to work with fMRI datasets, specifically to study cortical surface geometry and apply graph-based techniques to identify functional brain networks.